HMOs bear a striking resemblance to these intestinal glycans, so pathogens sometimes stick to them instead. They act as decoys to draw fire away from a baby’s own cells. They can block a roll call of gut villains including Salmonella; Listeria; Vibrio cholerae, the culprit behind cholera; Campylobacter jejuni, the most common cause of bacterial diarrhoea; Entamoeba histolytica, a voracious amoeba that causes dysentery and kills 100,000 people every year; and many virulent strains of E. coli. They may even be able to obstruct HIV, which might explain why most infants who suckle from infected
...more
